21 March 2006 at 03:49

progress report

The job. Yesterday I taught all day and half the night, and I had a ball. I was well-prepared, and it was stuff that I have strong and well-constructed ideas about, so I really enjoyed the mixture of lecturing, discussion, and practical work. When people asked probing questions I was ready with answers or with questions to throw back to help them work out the answer. I think it's called Socratic questioning.

I don't often put on a performance, I believe it's better to let the students do more of the work. But I must admit that when the energy is flowing, performing is addictive and I can understand why actors and comedians get such a buzz out of it.

The right-hand RSI. The left-handed mouse skills are improving, especially now that I've reversed the mouse buttons on all the PCs at work and at home.

The Child-care. On Sunday I was the only parental figure in the house, and the boy wanted to work on his school Physics project - building an electric motor. Actually he wanted me to do the work, but I said I would simply advise him and let him do the real work.

We ended up spending all day building the thing, and it would have taken even longer if I hadn't stepped in and taken over whenever he was making heavy going of it. Often it's quicker to do the sawing/drilling yourself than stand by while a kid makes a mess of it. I don't mind watching students make a dog's breakfast of things when I'm being paid for it at college, but I lack the patience for that at home.

The blog template. The peek-a-boo display of comments is working well. And I've put a cluster map, at the right, of where people click from. Here's a zoomed version showing 4 days of hits:

Most of the clicks would have been guys trawling for HNT boob and bum shots, but you'll notice that one of the hits came from Turkey - that will be mamahog, an English woman who lives in Istanbul and posts about life as a funky Westerner in a (modern) Islamic country.

The TV. When I first came ashore in these Islands all those years ago, I was determined to "live lite", i.e. to avoid becoming weighed down by accumulated possessions, especially heavy contraptions that would limit my options for moving on.

So for a year I had no TV set. Then I succumbed and bought a wee pocket TV with a 1-inch screen. That was good for watching TV in bed under the blankets, but useless for watching sport, because fast-moving tennis-balls and footballs simply disappear from the screen, so you have to use a lot of imagination. Eventually, I cracked and bought a smallish TV set, the sort that some people put in their kitchens. I have used that for ten years. But you have to sit quite close to it - it's no good if you want to lie flat on your back on the floor wearing the light-bending space-age TV glasses.

When hotboy recently mentioned watching David Attenborough's TV wildlife series, I decided it was time to stop making do with a wee TV, and live a little. So last week I splashed out on a 68cm (29-inch) flat screen TV. It's still cheap old CRT technology but it's new to me. It's so heavy, it took 3 people just to lift it out of the box. I built an altar for it out of several coffee tables stacked up. Now the room's a temple to the electronic nipple.

And as soon as I finish this post I'm going to have breakfast then watch one of my favourite films, Trainspotting. I haven't seen it since the year it came out, so I've forgotten most of what happens, but I do remember it's a metaphor for addiction to tea. What a rush! I saw it originally in a crowded cinema - the appalled audience watched in stunned silence while we cackled ourselves hoarse in the back row.

Adolf! Zeig! Why is that woman trying to hoover up the beach? How about a socratic dialogue for this heruclean task? e.g. What is daftiness? The map is good. I'd also like one, but I'd have to do something and that's not on. Doing things doesn't help at all! Hotboy

Adolf! Heil! Shame about your trigger finger being on the blink!I hope this doesn't stop you defending yourself against the orange deities! Have you got compen for such things on your side. That would help! Hotboyp.s. Brian Wilson has the same problem!